


Yearbooks

by alovething



Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Canon, Fluff, No Slash, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-05-28
Updated: 2005-05-28
Packaged: 2018-12-26 23:04:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,454
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12068772
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alovething/pseuds/alovething
Summary: Brian and Justin exchange yearbooks.





	Yearbooks

**Author's Note:**

> Note from IrishCaelan, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Brian_Justin_Fanfiction_Archive). To preserve the archive, I began importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in September 2017. I posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [The Brian/Justin Fanfiction Archive collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/bjfic/profile).

**AN** : _I just graduated high school, and I wrote this as a way to get out some of my feelings. It's set in an alternate universe, where Brian and Justin go to high school together. It's basically the last chapter of a story that was never written, but it makes sense all on its own. Please read and review!_

* * *

Brian sauntered into the gym, all confidence and a smirk. He carried his yearbook under one am as if it were an afterthought, the blue cover gleaming under the florescent lights. His collar hung open, his blazer long ago abandoned in the blistering heat of his car. His tie was stuffed in his back pocket, the dress code forgotten as his years at St, James came to a close. One more day. He dropped down onto the bleachers, his sun kissed skin teasingly revealed beneath his open collar. He closed his eyes, reveling in these last few moments of noisiness and glee, the final moments of high school. 

When he opened his eyes again, he stared into a pair of sparkling blue eyes. He took in the petite bundle of perfection, all blond hair and pale skin. He was a year younger, a junior. He had another year to be a kid, to be a lay about and have no worries. For one split second, he was jealous.

“Justin Taylor. What can I do for you?” Brian asked smugly, raising one elegant eyebrow towards his hairline. The blond smiled, a perfect smile that made Brian’s skin tremble with desire and longing.

“I was wondering if you could, um, sign my yearbook?” His eyes were hopeful, reflecting Brian and the crowd behind him.

“I can’t do that,” Brian replied. Justin looked crestfallen. The brunet smirked, his tongue finding the inside of his cheek. “I don’t have a pen.”

“Ah,” Justin grinned, pulling a ballpoint pen from the pocket of his slacks. Brian’s eyes followed the movement, not at all slyly. His eyes traveled across his groin and studied each nimble finger. The kid was hot.

Brian took the pen, brushing his fingertips against Justin’s palm. He let them linger there until he was satisfied with the blush that appeared on his pale cheeks. He laughed a little and pulled the pen away, twirling it until he held it steady in his right hand. He took Justin’s book in his left and opened it to the last page. It was clean, unsigned. Brian smiled.

Justin rocked on the balls of his feet and started to turn away.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Justin stopped and turned back to the gorgeous senior, the graduate to be. He raised one eyebrow in question. “You have to sign mine too.”

“Oh,” Justin grinned, running his fingers through his blond hair before letting it fall back around his face, hugging his seashell ears. “I can do that.”

He extracted another pen from his pocket. He was an artist. He had no less than two writing utensils on him at any given time. He sat down next to Brian, smiling coyly. Justin opened Brian’s yearbook to the last page and ran his fingertips along the bare paper, smiling at the blank page. He uncapped his pen and pressed it to the paper.

_Brian,_

Suddenly he was at a loss for words.

Brian placed his pen against the page and began to write in his usual messy scrawl.

_Justin,_

He stopped and placed the end of the pen between his lips, furrowing his brow. They looked at each other for a moment before sharing an awkward smile and turning back to the books in their laps.

A few people walked up to the pair, but veered away when they saw how engrossed they were in each other’s yearbooks. 

“I want to get Brian to sign my yearbook,” Sarah whispered to John.

“He looks busy. There’s always more time,” her boyfriend replied. She looked up at him with glassy eyes.

“We graduate tomorrow. There isn’t always more time. It’s all over soon.” John looked around the gym, sighed, and nodded. They took another look at Brian before moving on to another acquaintance, another signature in the yearbook, another future distant memory.

Neither boy looked up as they scribbled across the page, their hands on autopilot. Brian shut his eyes against the flood of emotions running through him. How could it be over? He wasn’t ready, wasn’t prepared. He wanted to stay here, as a kid, forever. He wasn’t ready to grow up, to be an adult. When it came to graduation, he was happy/sad/anxious/excited/scared all wrapped up into a cool, calm exterior. Graduation was such a double-edged sword. You wait _so_ long for it, your entire life, and when the time comes, you think… _why now?_

It seemed like an eternity had passed before the boys finally swapped yearbooks. Justin took his with a grin and wrapped his arms around it. He stared down at the blue cover and then looked away, bouncing his feet on the waxed floor. Brian watched in amusement. 

“Open it. Read it. I know you want to.” Justin smiled and pulled open his yearbook. Brian watched him intently. Justin stared down at the page of messy writing. He smiled when he noticed how neat Brian tried to make it.

_Justin,_

_Where do I begin? Time has gone by so fast. It’s unreal. At least I got to spend half of it with you. You’ve been by my side for almost two years now, and that in itself is worth celebrating. Now, I’m graduating and you will have to carry on the torch as Super Hot Gay Senior. I’m sure you can do that. I remember the day I met you. I was infatuated at first sight, had to have you, needed you. There was just something about those blue eyes, and the way you looked at me, like I was someone special. Since that day, I have been so happy. That’s all because of you. You lifted me up when I was down. You’ve held me, wiped my tears, kissed my pain away. You’ve laughed with me, cried with me, danced with me, lived with me…loved with me. There is nothing in this world I want to do without you by my side. I know I’m being overly sentimental, and that’s so not me, but I’m a little emotional right now. It’s a little overwhelming, you know? It’s going to suck not having you near me during school anymore. No more making out in locked bathrooms and horrifying teachers in the halls. It wasn’t easy for us, but we made it through. I knew we would, even when times were at their worst. I know you are sad about me going to college and not being here with you, but I’ll still be in town. I’m not moving from my apartment, our apartment, when you’re ready. You’ll be a big, fat, fucking success in your senior year, and all through life. You are the smile on my face, remember that. I could go on forever about how much you mean to me and how much I love you, but I know when you crack this book open ten years from now, I’ll be right there next to you, reading this sentimental shmoop over your shoulder. You aren’t getting rid of me, no matter how hard you try. ;) Now, I know you’re probably crying by now, and being the perfect boyfriend that I am, I will have to comfort you. So, wipe your eyes, close this book, look over, and kiss me. I love you, Justin._

_Always,  
Brian_

_P.S. Have the best time you can. That’s all that matters._

Brian bit his bottom lip as Justin slowly closed the book. He ran his fingertips over the cover and turned his head to look at his boyfriend. Brian smiled as he saw a tear slip from each blue eye and travel down his cheeks. He leaned forward and cleaned the salty drops with the end of his thumb. Justin smiled and let out a little sob. He lunged forward into Brian’s lap and kissed him with all his might. They didn’t care who saw them. They stopped caring a long time ago.

“Your turn,” Justin whispered as he pulled away from Brian. The brunet smiled and opened his book to the last page. Justin bit on his thumbnail and watched the beautiful hazel eyes move back and forth intently.

_Brian,_

_Another year, another lifetime. It seems so long, but not nearly long enough. I should feel indifferent. I shouldn’t care it’s ending. I have another year to go. But my other half is graduating, my better half. Since I’ve met you, there hasn’t been a day where you haven’t been right beside me in these halls. And now, you won’t be. I know I shouldn’t worry too much. You aren’t going anywhere. Carnegie Mellon isn’t far, but it’s still weird, you know? You’ve taught me so many things. You taught me how to stand up for myself, and to do what I want. No apologies, no regrets. You taught me what true love is like. You show me every single day how important I am, how special. You taught me not to be scared of who I am, what I am. You’ve believed in me from day one. For that, I will be forever grateful. You let me be me, Justin. No one else has done that before. We’ve had so many good times here. Good times, and bad. But why think about the bad? I’ll always remember that day Mr. Douglas walked in on us making out in the photo room. Remember his face? I thought he was going to explode! But he just told us to go find someplace else because he had papers to grade. Haha. Seems we’ve made out all over the school. We should make out right here in the gym, for old times sake. =P I’m going to miss you so much. School won’t be the same without you. But I’m going to move in with you soon! As soon as I turn 18. We’ll grow old together and get wrinkly and grey and have lots of babies and grandbabies and…just kidding. ;) But seriously, we’ll have a long, happy life. We’ll have so many memories at this school to look back on. So tomorrow, I’ll get to watch you walk across that stage and get your diploma. And I will cry like the little queen that I am. (If you get to graduate high school, I get to upgrade from princess to queen. It’s only fair.) Thanks for all the memories. Thanks in advance for all the ones to come. I love you so much. Always have, always will._

_Forever Yours,  
Justin _

Brian looked over at the blond and blinked hard, fighting back the tingle at the back of his eyes. He wrapped his arm around the smaller boy’s shoulder and pressed their foreheads together, letting his eyes say everything. Justin spoke the language perfectly. They shared a long, languid kiss in the middle of the gym before a booming voice over the loudspeaker interrupted them.

“All seniors report to the small gym in your gowns. The rally starts in ten minutes. I also need all the other classes to take their places in their section of the gym.”

“Well, let’s get this over with,” Brian muttered as he took his blue gown from Justin. “I really don’t see the point in this, since the ceremony isn’t until tomorrow night.”

“It’s a celebration of your last day here. You seniors leave and the rest of the classes move up a class. You’d know that if you came to last year’s rally,” Justin replied cheekily. Brian raised an eyebrow.

“If I can recall correctly, you weren’t at last year’s rally either. You were under the bleachers with me.”

“Well, that’s how it goes. People have told me. Now put on your robe.” Brian sighed and zipped up the gown. Justin looked at him and stifled a giggle. “Aw, don’t you look precious.”

“Fuck off. I feel like a blueberry.”

“A hot blueberry.”

“C’mon Brian! Let’s do this.” Brad jogged up to the pair. “Hey Justin. Ready to be a senior?”

“Totally,” Justin replied. Brian kissed his cheek and he and Brad jogged into the small gym and out of Justin’s view.

Justin gathered their yearbooks and joined Daphne in the crowd of juniors. A few minutes later, Pomp and Circumstance blasted through the speakers. Seniors began filing into the large gym in rows of two, each with a grin plastered on their faces. The seniors filed into their section of the gym for the last time. Justin cheered loudly when Brian walked out next to Brad, trademark smirk on his face.

He found Justin in the crowd immediately and waved at him before taking his place with the seniors. They kept their eyes locked across the gym as Mr. Thompson said his speech.

“It’s a day for new beginnings,” he said into the microphone as he walked the length of the gym. “Freshman will move up and become sophomores. Sophomores, you’ll move up and start anew as upperclassmen. Juniors, as of today, you own the school. New beginnings all around.” He walked over to stand in front of the seniors. “But, every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end. As of right now, you are no longer students here. You are now alumni. Seniors, please stand.” All the seniors stood in a flurry of blue gowns. Justin could already see teary faces. “Seniors, step down.”

Music blasted from the speakers as all the seniors walked down to the floor of the gym. Immediately, they all started hugging and crying. They became a mass of blue and tears, swirling together.

“Juniors, claim your section!” Anything else he said was lost as the juniors all clamored to the senior section of the gym. Justin and Daphne ran through the seniors, giggling and dodging them. A strong arm reached out and grabbed the back of Justin’s tee shirt. 

Brian pulled Justin up against him and kissed the side of his neck.

“Hey,” Justin protested half-heartedly. “I need to go claim my rightful spot.”

“Your rightful spot is right here, with me.” Brian turned Justin in his arms and smiled at him. Graduating scared the hell out of him. His future was a hazy and uncertain vision in his head. The only thing that was perfectly clear was that Justin would be there every step of the way. They would be in love forever.

And that made everything all right.


End file.
